I don’t know about you, but I reckon whenever someone starts a sentence with, “Don’t take offence, but…” or my personal favourite, “I don’t mean to be rude, but…” there’s a fairly high chance that what that person is about to say is going to either a) offend you or b) sound quite rude.
Last night, in between supervising homework and getting dinner organised, a classic example of this, popped up on my Facebook feed:
Honestly, I couldn’t believe what I was reading.
Now I don’t know Kylie (the owner of Whisky Business) personally, but her store isn’t too far from me and I’ve been in there several times with Sophie for a coffee and a macaron (or three. Don’t judge. They’re exceptionally good macarons!)
I’ve also forked over a few bucks for this amazing looking macaron tower which took centre stage at Sophie’s Macaron themed birthday party last year:
When I went to pick the tower up, there had been a slight error with my order and instead of the macarons being put together in a tower they were sitting in a tray, all ready to be individually placed into a bowl when I got home.
When I told Kylie that it was meant to be a tower, she apologised profusely for the error, told me to take a seat and enjoy a complimentary coffee & macaron, while she put the tower together.
Normally I would’ve gratefully accepted her offer, but because I’m one of *those* mothers who doesn’t do birthday parties by halves, I told Kylie I had a huge helium balloon in the boot of my car that would more than likely deflate in the heat while I waited.
Her response to my huge first world problem? “That’s ok. You head home now and I’ll get the tower made for you. My husband will deliver it to your house before the party starts.”
I mean, really. Have you ever heard of such accommodating, thoughtful customer service?
I was so grateful and thanked Kylie profusely before rushing out the door to get that ridiculously large balloon home.
And do you know what? I’m fairly sure Kylie managed to sort that situation out ALL WITHOUT LIPSTICK ON.
I KNOW. I don’t know how the hell she did it either!
Of course, I am being sarcastic with those last two sentences. I mean, FFS. It’s 2014. Not 1952.
Women can run businesses, raise children, hold down jobs, study, go for a run, WHATEVS, all without a face full of makeup. Really! They can! And most do ON A DAILY BASIS.
And as women, shouldn’t we be cheering each other from the sidelines, rather than passively aggressively bringing each other down? I mean who gives a shit if you rock up to work/do the school run/dare to get a photograph taken for a newspaper article about YOUR OWN BUSINESS without make up on? Not me, that’s for sure.
While I was reading the Whisky Business status update, Sophie asked me what I was doing. I told her I was reading something on Facebook that wasn’t very nice. Which prompted Sophie to ask, “Why can’t people be nice all the time? Why do people have to be mean sometimes?”
My response? “Being nice involves thinking of someone other than yourself and that’s something a lot of people find very difficult to do.”
And now that I’ve had a bit of time to think about it, I reckon that art of being nice also involves minding your own business, not being so judgy mcjudgy and keeping you mouth firmly shut when you feel yourself wanting to start a sentence with the words “Don’t take offence, but….”
What do you think? Does wearing lipstick make ANY difference to how you do your job? And is it really that hard to be nice? I’d love to know your thoughts on this one!
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